Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Flick woke up the next day and pulled back the curtains.
She propped herself up against the headboard and looked out over the spectacular view.
It was so much more beautiful in the daylight, the summer sunshine making everything sparkle.
The sea was a stunning turquoise green today.
The houses of all different colours were snuggled up together on the opposite hillside overlooking the little harbour.
Lovegrove Bay had always been one of her favourite places.
She wanted to walk around the pretty village, try one of the unique flavours of ice cream from the little shop on the corner of Main Street, eat fish and chips on the steps of the harbour, maybe even have a paddle on Blossom Beach.
But there was work to be done. She wanted to have a good look at each of the artists’ shops, see how their space was laid out. Maybe presentation was the key or at least part of it .
Six months didn’t feel like a very long time to turn around the shops’ successes.
She thought about her conversation with Luke last night.
She felt so frustrated that her nan hadn’t told the artists what the lie of the land was.
They had no idea why she was here, or the state of the studio’s finances or that the whole place might be closed and bulldozed to the ground in a few months.
At least if her nan had had that discussion with them they might have been more open to her coming in and changing everything.
Audrey hated confrontation or breaking bad news.
She was the classic ostrich, burying her head in the sand and hoping anything bad would go away.
So now it was down to Flick. Her nan hadn’t made it easy for her.
She bit her lip as she thought more about the conversation on the roof terrace.
She couldn’t help but smile when she remembered Luke doing the flying scene from Titanic with her.
He was unashamedly silly and she loved that.
She thought back to her previous boyfriends and whether any of them would have done something silly like that with her and the answer was definitely not.
She wanted someone she could have fun with.
She knew life wasn’t always sunshine and roses.
There was a lot more to a relationship than having someone who made you laugh.
A good relationship was being there for each other throughout the highs and lows but the lows were a little bit easier to deal with if you had someone you could be silly with.
Luke made her laugh and she really liked that.
It was just a shame he was leaving in a few weeks.
There had even been a moment when she’d turned around from flying over the sea when she’d thought he might kiss her.
She’d seen his eyes cast down to her lips and she thought he was going to but then he stepped back and she decided she’d probably imagined it.
He didn’t know her, why would he kiss her?
What would she have done if he had kissed her?
She’d been flying so high that he’d joined in with her silliness she would have probably kissed him back.
But god that would have made things awkward when they had to work together and live together.
They were probably better off as friends, especially as he was leaving, so why did she feel a little bit disappointed about that?
She went out into the communal living area but there was no sign of Luke.
His bedroom door was open and he wasn’t in there.
The bathroom door was closed, however, and she certainly didn’t want a repeat of yesterday and to walk in on him naked again.
She hoped he would have the good sense to lock the bathroom door.
She walked up to it and knocked. There was no answer. She called out to him but again there was no answer. But that didn’t help her feel any more confident about opening the door, knowing that he liked to listen to music on his headphones.
She clamped one hand over her eyes and opened the door. There was still no sound from the other side.
So she moved forward and waved her arm around to make sure the space was empty and there was still no noise or any evidence that someone was there.
‘What are you doing?’ came Luke’s voice from behind her.
She whirled round with her hand still over her eyes and felt her other hand smash into his stomach.
‘Ooof.’
‘Sorry.’
She risked a peep through her fingers to see him doubled over, but at least he was fully clothed this time.
‘I’m so sorry, I was just checking to see if anyone was in the bathroom. I didn’t want to see you naked again.’
He straightened, rubbing his stomach gingerly. He wasn’t wearing his glasses today, she wondered if he wore contact lenses or maybe they were just reading glasses. She tried to decide whether he was sexier with or without them and decided they both had their merits.
‘It’s OK.’ His voice was strained. ‘I just got back from a run and when I came in I saw you flapping your arms around in here, I thought it was some kind of weird dance. I’m also very glad I wasn’t naked and on the receiving end of your flailing arms. I might have lost the ability to have children for good.
But, just so you know, there is a lock on the bathroom door which I always use so with any luck you won’t be seeing me naked ever again. Well unless…’ he trailed off.
‘Unless?’
‘Well unless we’re both naked,’ he blushed furiously.
‘Why would we both be naked? ’
‘Just forget I said anything. There won’t be any more nakedness. Ever.’
She smirked as she realised what he’d been trying not to say. Enjoying his embarrassment, she decided to push it. ‘You mean, mutually agreed nakedness.’
‘I was just trying to cover all eventualities, but obviously that isn’t going to happen.
And I don’t want it to. That isn’t even on the table.
I don’t mean that we’d be doing it on the table.
Or anywhere. Or at all. Ever. Jesus, I don’t want to have sex with you.
I have no idea why I said that about us both being naked.
Can we just store that in the “never happened” box along with you walking in on me naked and me examining my penis in the mirror?
Christ, why am I bringing that up again? ’
Flick stared at him and burst out laughing. ‘Oh, I’m going to like being friends with you. Completely platonic, non-naked friends who definitely won’t be having sex ever.’
He flushed again and rolled his eyes. ‘You can see why I’m single.’
‘You’re fine, don’t worry about it. I’m going to have a shower, I will be locking the door so there won’t be any more accidental nakedness and then you can help me face the troops.’
‘Well, I have to have a shower too. Alone and behind locked doors. But then I’ll be ready to help you.’
She smiled and closed the door, shaking her head. There was something so damned likeable about Luke Donnelly.
Flick made her way downstairs and started walking round the different rooms before the artists arrived.
It had been a while since she’d been here but not a lot had changed.
Same layout, same decor, even the threadbare carpet and rugs in the halls were the same.
But now she was trying to look at it all through the eyes of potential customers.
The house had a kind of open-plan feel in that none of the individual shops or artists’ rooms had doors, windows or walls to separate them from the rest of the house. There were just rooms, open spaces or tucked-away nooks where the artists had taken up residence.
In one room, there were beautifully embroidered quilts of various sizes and colours.
The work was exquisite, not just the sewing and quilting, but the beautifully embroidered flowers, birds and animals too.
But apart from two or three hanging on the walls, they weren’t displayed nicely at all.
There was a pile of them on the table and another pile on the floor.
One work-in-progress was laid out on a large desk.
There were prices on the two quilts on the wall but none on any of the others.
Flick knew how some people hated asking how much something was and would rather walk out than bother someone for a price.
Although the old adage of ‘If you have to ask you probably can’t afford it’ was probably true judging by the prices of the two on the walls.
She had no doubt that the quilts on the wall had taken many days or even weeks to finish and that they were almost certainly worth the exorbitant price tag, but who could afford to buy something like that?
Judging by the huge piles of quilts stacked up around the room, Ethel, the quilting artist, hadn’t sold one for a very long time.
There had to be some middle ground here.
Flick didn’t want to undersell what her work was worth but she somehow had to appeal to the average person.
Ethel was clearly good at embroidery as well as quilting, perhaps she could make some very small, embroidered items to sell alongside the quilts like cushion covers or brooches.
Flick wandered down the hall to what was Aidan, the potter’s, room.
There were no plates, bowls or cups in here though.
The room was filled with beautiful clay sculptures of various sizes, none of which had been made in moulds, all one-off, unique creations, although there were a lot of dragons.
In fact probably seventy-five percent of the stock, if not more, were dragons which would have been perfect if a customer loved dragons, but there wasn’t a lot of choice for those non-dragon-loving customers.
She looked at the price tag of one of the medium-sized dragons and winced.
She really was going to struggle to get the artists on side with offering cheaper products.